The University of San Diego has established itself as a standard among the nation’s finest colleges, routinely ranked in the top 100 by U.S. News & World Report.

It costs more than $40,000 per year to attend the little school on the hill, takes a GPA near perfect to get in. The requirements to survive academically are severe, and still 65 percent of the student body finishes in four years.

The Catholic institution, few would deny, is turning out good humans and good employees. In fact, the (brilliant) man running this newspaper is a graduate of the fine business school there.

Fact is, wins and losses don’t even begin to quantify the way USD measures itself.

Yet the men’s basketball coach is paid more than the school president.

So USD knows how intercollegiate athletics – namely, in this case, Division I hoops -- is played, why it’s played and what it takes to play.

Call it Ky’s conundrum.

See, after achieving (barely) two winning seasons in seven years, Bill Grier, that handsomely compensated basketball coach, will continue to be employed at USD because better is good enough.

“We’re not where we want to be, but we are making progress,” USD Athletic Director Ky Snyder said this week. “. . . I know it’s hard to see that, because you don’t come out to enough games. But we’re a much better team than we were last year.”

It was difficult to tell whether Snyder was being defensive or taking the offensive. I do know he notices I’m not the only one not going to USD games.

The Toreros had one sellout (San Diego State), one near-sellout (Gonzaga) and maybe three other games where more than half of the 5,100 seats at the Jenny Craig Pavilion were filled.

I did, in fact, go to three games this past season. I did, in fact, write that USD was better. I did, in fact, also write that Grier is a good basketball coach.

That was the same column in which I opined he should be fired.

You don’t need to attend many games -- or have attended USD -- to do simple math.

After making (and winning a game in) the NCAA Tournament in his first season, largely with players he inherited, Grier’s USD teams are a combined 80-114. This year’s 18-17 finish was the Toreros' first winning campaign since that 2007-08 NCAA team, and it came with an assist from the school buying its way into a postseason tournament, where it won twice before losing.

To watch the Toreros (even just three times live and once on TV) is to see a team that appears to maximize its potential. That is largely a reflection of coaching.

However, that’s not all that college basketball is about. Not even close.

Building and maintaining a program begins with recruiting, and Grier can’t do that.

Now, granted, the school’s academic requirements present obstacles.

“We have to recruit people that get our core values,” Snyder said. “Athletics has to be part of the complete academic mission of the campus. We have student-athletes. They have to be committed to the classroom . . . We have to have the student, first and foremost. And that’s good. We believe in student development.”

But then, as Grier’s salary would seem to back up, Snyder said, “We’re also committed to competing at the highest level.”

Grier’s contract was extended and he was given a raise when Oregon State came calling in 2008. As a private school, USD does not divulge contract figures of its employees, but Grier is known to make more than $600,000 per year. The exact length of his contract is not known, either, but sources indicated the 2014-15 season is the last year in which the school is on the hook for significant money.

When I asked Snyder if the money owed Grier is why the coach was still employed, there was a long pause followed by a long pause. I couldn’t tell if Snyder was breathing, because the silence was so loud.

Finally, Snyder spoke, and resignedly is the best way his tone can be described.

“I like Bill Grier as a coach,” Snyder said. “He’s a good coach. I think he’s proven that, and we’re getting better at what we want to do.”